Originally Posted by umarabbas
Women, their nature, sexuality, role in the society, and their status in a male dominated world has always been a source of fascination, a food for thought, a topic for research and an inspiration for many poets. However, over the past few years, the status of women and the rights that they own have been closely debated. After countless discussions, innumerable books, and emotionally moving shows over the TV, this debate remains as contestable as ever. Indeed it is nearly impossible to reach a conclusion in a single sitting, or a single essay. Recently, this debate has also hit the shores of the minds of Pakistani intelligentsia, riding on the waves of media and education. The purpose of this particular effort is to identify and explain the different aspects of this multi-faceted debate i.e. “Can Women be Equal to Men in Pakistan?”.
It is sad indeed to notice this debate being contested heavily all around us in an age where the populace of this planet can rightly boast about their technical, economic, cultural and social advancements. Pakistan is no exception. Yet it is thought provoking that how many of us, who are always so eager to jump into such discussions, have ever defined the term “equality” properly. Perhaps this particular foray into a land so vastly explored by today’s experts will prove fruitful if we first define what we actually mean by equality when we ask the question “Can Women be equal to Men in Pakistan?”
Equality in the context of this paper means unbiased, not moved by emotions or hormones, having a respectful approach towards the differences and the different needs due to those differences between the sexually different human beings. Relating to women in our society, equality would generally mean, equal opportunities for protection of life, honor and property. It would also fetch the rights of treatment at par with the male gender before the law. The offshoots of this equality would further demand equal opportunities for education, health, and entertainment facilities. Furthermore, the term equality will also encompass the right to choose the field/job, right of association, right to choose freely between different options. Hence when we talk of equality in this paper, it means having access to all those facilities and privileges that a son of Adam enjoys in this Islamic Republic of Pakistan.
Having understood the context of equality in our case, one needs to look around for some established orders/mechanism/ideologies which ensure such equality. Different cultures provide different levels of equality to their womenfolk while following different ideologies. All such ideologies are either moved by religious convictions, vested interests or being triggered by political or social forces. With different motives and backgrounds all such reigning ideologies about women’s place in the society have different characteristics, accompanied with their pros and cons.
The first and foremost of all such ideologies is the one that may be aptly called the Islamic ideology about women’s place in a society or women’s equality to men in a society. It should be noted that Islam, a religion spreading from Mecca under the leadership of Hazrat Muhammad P.B.U.H, was the first social agent that raised the daughter of Eve to her due position and considerably improved upon her hapless situation. Although historians have pointed out to the liberties enjoyed by Roman and Greek women, but we need to bear in mind that all such liberties never ensured their equality. For example, in the Roman era, although a woman had considerable liberty but she could not own property on her own. So somewhere down the lane, she was always tied to the guy in her life. Islam not only uprooted the evil traditions and ideologies regarding women but also ensured that a women reaches such a pinnacle where she is no more a human being, but at time she is next only to God. Islam restored the women her long lost rights and privileges and ensured that she no longer serves as a serf to the males in her life. The laws of Islam, the rights and duties as specified by Islamic Shariah, and the role of Women in an Islamic society form the Islamic Ideology regarding the Women’s equality in a society.
The second form of equality, the one we are all accustomed to these days and is quite well known to us, was triggered by the Industrial Revolution. The Industrial Revolution not only increased the output from the Industries, but also increased the demand for labor. With women forming almost 50% of the population in almost all parts of the world, it was naturally felt that they formed a cheap source of labor in the industries that were used to power the Imperialist stampede in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Therefore we see a marked increase in both the women and child labor in the European countries of those ages. The Great World Wars accelerated such processes. For example, during WW2, women were vastly employed in the industries manufacturing weapons and ammunition. Thus the West slowly and reluctantly gave way to women equality under the economic pressure. The best example is that till late 19th century if you were a woman in United Kingdom, you could not own a property and in case the woman was married, the husband was entitled to have the rent from all her property. Thus we see that as this system was motivated by financial benefits rather than a sympathy for the plight of the womenfolk. With the passage of time, this system evolved into a systematic exploitation of the weaker sex. Thus on the surface, we have a satisfied woman, who is equal to men in her society, yet she has lost all the benefits that her sex provides her. Instead of being a companion and source of comfort to the loved ones around her, she finds herself a sex machine, and a source of entertainment to others. The liberty that we see is basically the degradation of the purity that is so beautiful about the daughter of Eve. Such a system can be usually associated with the Western Countries, therefore in our case we will call it a Western mode of Equality or a Western System of Equality.
The third form of equality, the one that reigns in Pakistan, is the newest ideological development and is a product of the late 20th century. In almost all the Muslim countries, the Islamic Shariah and the Western Ideologies have been mixed up to produced something which we may call a Hybrid Islamic system of Equality. In such a system, the society chooses a few pro points from the Islamic Ideology and a few from the Western system and expects it to work well. For example, the voting rights from the Western Civilization is amalgamated with the expectation that a mother will be respected by her son or the right to choose a husband etc. Such a system has inherent problems in itself.
i couldnt juss write more than this hehe...stamina hi nai raha :P
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Sunday, October 24, 2010
I'll take care in the future.(Since "viceroy" and others were too humble not to pick any spelling mistakes, i thought i didn't make any)God help me.
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